


smile

by quantum27



Series: pseudonym [1]
Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Brainwashing, Gen, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27873102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantum27/pseuds/quantum27
Summary: In which Kevin Flynn experiences a fate far worse than death.
Relationships: Clu (Tron) & Kevin Flynn
Series: pseudonym [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2060235
Comments: 10
Kudos: 15





	smile

The first thing that he registered upon waking up was the fact that his head  _ hurt _ . The second thing was the fact that the room was far too dark; a distinct lack of lightlines except for a few lining the corners of the small room. The third was that he was restrained to the chair he was sitting in. 

He blinked rapidly, trying to process what had happened. What had  _ happened? _ The last thing he remembered was…

Was Clu striking him to the ground. He winced. That was where the headache came from- and as he thought more about it, there was at least a small patch of dried blood on his temple from where he’d gotten his head smashed against the ground. 

He looked down to the restraints. They were clasped around his wrists and ankles. Which was really funny, because he was pretty sure he’d never designed this. Ever. And he’d watched enough films to know where this was going. Waking up in a dark room with restraints? Yeah. That meant torture of some kind. 

He sighed, leaning his chin down to his chest. He was feeling a lot of emotions, but currently they were all fighting with each other, leaving no one victor. It meant that instead of feeling any of them he only felt empty. 

“Ah. So you’ve finally woken up, huh.” 

Well. He had been feeling empty. He jerked his head up to face the Echo. 

Clu stepped into the room, the door sliding behind him. His golden circuits lit up the space ominously. 

That was something. The orange-yellow color his circuits had taken- Well, if there was one thing that had always been consistent about the systems, it was the color coordination of who was who. Bad Guys Vs Good Guys. And while the gold wasn’t red, it might as well have been. 

He glanced down to his own circuit line on his jacket. It was dimmer than usual, the blue-ish white had always had a tendency to be brighter than any other program. A sure sign of a User, he supposed. It’s current level of light meant that he could do with a glass of energy. Or twelve hours of sleep. Either would do. 

“C’mon Flynn. Aren’t you gonna say anything to me? I’m still your program. You can’t just leave me hanging here, man.” 

Flynn winced at the pattern of the words. That had been deliberate, certainly. He looked back up to Clu, who was smirking.  _ Smirking.  _ Why should Flynn expect anything different after all? Clu had been right about the fact that he was Flynn’s program. 

Clu came close to him, leaning down so they could be at eye level. And then he waited. Waited for him to say something. Anything. There was a certain level of  _ something _ in the program’s eyes. He wanted something from Flynn, but what he couldn’t be sure. How could he be now, after all? Apparently, he’d been missing the want so badly it had led to a- What was the word? A Coup. It had led to a Coup. 

His mind reeled as the word settled in his mind.  _ The Coup _ \- He hadn’t seen- 

“Where’s Tron?” He tried to demand, sounding more desperate than anything.

Clu leaned back with a short laugh, “You never do change, do you. Not on your own, at least.” 

Flynn growled in frustration, which only made Clu laugh more. 

“C’mon Flynn. If I had had Tron, you really think I’d be in here with you?” 

Flynn raised his eyebrows. 

“Oh you really don’t get it do you?” The sysadmin asked with a delighted smile, and then he shook his head, “Of course, if I had Tron I’d be able to have someone else  _ do it _ . But we’ve never had to deal with a User before, and I can’t just let some underling do it. Y’know?” 

“I don’t actually.” Flynn replied, voice jaded. 

Clu shook his head and tutted slowly, circling around him as he did. He struggled to turn his head to keep him in line of sight, but soon the program was standing directly behind him. 

Then he put his hands on Flynn’s shoulders, and a shiver ran up his spine. 

“I know, I know. You’ve just been  _ so busy _ ,” Clu’s voice was almost warm. Almost. “It’s easy to understand how you’d fail to notice.” 

“Notice what Cl-” 

Clu’s hands had drifted down to his disk and undocked it. It was far too gentle that Flynn had barely even noticed it. It reminded him of Sam coming behind him and tucking the tag of a shirt back under the collar. And he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. 

Clu made a bit of a show of walking even more slowly back in front of him. He knew it was a show because the program had activated the disk’s interface to pop up exactly as he landed back into Flynn’s line of sight. 

Flynn, despite everything, rolled his eyes. 

The system admin stopped in front of him, eyes flickering back and forth as he took in the information on the disk. The User had never particularly let anyone else look through it besides when he himself was showing someone else information. It sent unwelcome shivers up his spine each time as he accessed every new piece of information. Flynn clenched his jaw, trying to will himself to stay still. 

There was a genuine wonder in Clu’s eyes now. Something light and pure like when everything was simpler. But then slowly something twisted that wonder into something Flynn wasn’t sure he wanted to assign a word to. It was dark. How did Flynn let this happen? How had he let it get this far? 

“Clu…” He said slowly, “Whatever this is- I’m sure we can find a better way. You want information off my disk? I’ll give it to you. You can take the disk. But we just. Just need to figure this out. If we can find Tron, and talk about this-” He stopped as Clu smiled wide, teeth sparkling. 

“Oh, my dear,  _ dear  _ User.” His smile turned roguish, “Kevin Flynn.” 

There was something about the way Clu said his name that seemed so. So. Definite. 

Like it was the last time he’d ever hear it. 

He swallowed, but struggled, his mouth was as dry as sandpaper. Funny how he hadn’t noticed that before now. 

“What are you going to do to me?” 

Clu blinked, “Ah so you’ve finally decided to ask the right questions. That’s great. Wonderful, really.” 

“Ha.” 

“Yes well. You know. We simple, lowly programs- We can’t just code up new programs ourselves-” He gestured lightly with the disk, “But we can. Alter code that already exists.” 

The air escaped from Flynn’s lungs, “ _ No. _ ” 

“Yes. Actually. You remember our. ‘Dear Friend’, Jalen?” 

Flynn didn’t have any words to say, only gaping uselessly. 

The program cocked his head to the side, “Let’s just say that Abraxas-”

“You didn’t-”

“Oh but I did.” 

“No, no, you couldn’t you- You’re supposed to be good, Clu. You’re supposed to be  _ good _ that’s what-”

“I am  **supposed** to create the  **_Perfect System_ ** .” He spat back. 

Flynn shrank back in his seat. 

“Now.” Clu continued, “As you can tell, ISOs are a bit more difficult than regular programs. So this whole, rectifying- that’s what I’ve been calling it by the way, rectification, got a ring to it don’t you think?- this rectification process has been thoroughly tested on many programs at this point. But a User?” 

Clu seemed to consider it, indicating the disk in his hand, “Well you can see why I didn’t want anyone but me handling this.” 

“Why. What’s the point? Can’t you just take my disk and use it to- to, uh-” He wasn’t sure what Clu could use the disk for at this point. Surely it didn’t have that many more permissions than he did. And as a key to the portal? Well, even if the sysadmin could use it to go to the portal, he obviously  _ hadn’t _ . And by now it was probably closed. 

“Maybe in the future, I’m sure. But it will be so much easier overall to have a User on my side. You can finally reach your full potential at my side. The full extent of your powers. Because we all know you could’ve done more with them.” 

“Maybe that’s not the point.” Flynn spat. 

“Mm. I’m sure.” It was Clu’s turn to roll his eyes. 

Flynn sighed. This wasn’t a battle he was going to win. He closed his eyes for a moment. He was just. Just so tired at this point. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to just go to sleep and never wake up. The longest, bestest, most wonderfulest nap ever. 

He shook his head at the thoughts, eyes snapping open to see Clu’s fingers dancing over the interface of his disk. 

“That’s it. Just go to sleep. Everything’s going to just be alright.” 

Flynn took a deep breath, ready to say something, but instead it turned into a yawn. His eyes fluttered and he- 

* * *

The first thing that he registered upon waking up was the fact that his head  _ hurt _ . The second thing was the fact that the room was far too dark; a distinct lack of lightlines except for a few lining the corners of the small room. The third was that he was restrained to the chair he was sitting in 

He blinked blearily at his surroundings. He couldn’t quite remember- He couldn’t. Couldn’t remember anything actually. 

His gaze sharpened scanning the room for any sign of why he was here. When the room revealed nothing, he took a look at himself, to see if what he was wearing had any clues. 

He was wearing simple clothes, with barely any lightlines (How did he know what those were?). His eyes lingered on them in particular. The red glared angrily back up at him. He felt...odd about them. Like they should be another color- But then? That wouldn’t make sense. They were supposed to be red. What other color could they possibly be? 

Everything was confusing. He was someone. He knew that much. He had a purpose. But what it was? That was yet to be determined. 

“Ah. So you’ve finally woken up, huh.” 

He looked up curiously at the source of the voice as he came in the room. 

The man looked familiar, but he couldn’t place the face. But he was sure he  _ should _ know him. 

“I’m sorry about the chair-” The restraints unclicked from around his wrists and ankles. He rubbed at his wrists, the skin felt achy from the contact. 

“They really should make them more comfortable.” The man had a nice smile at least. Kind, reassuring. 

He nodded in response, still silent. 

“Ah, I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m Clu. Your  _ Luminary _ .” 

Luminary- Clu- The system admin, who he was designed to serve. An honor and a privilege to serve. Not many programs could even get the chance. 

“And you’re going to help me create the perfect system.” Clu smiled, eyes joyous, “ **_Rinzler._ ** ” 

And Rinzler smiled back. 

**Author's Note:**

> this was published at like,, midnightish so like. mm. if there's typos i will find them another day. 
> 
> but yeah flynnzler au. :'D i like pain i guess


End file.
